NEW YORK (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-life organizations are applauding the Holy See for its firm stance at the United Nations, where the 59th session of the Commission on Population and Development ended without a consensus resolution after pro-abortion delegations insisted on including contested language on “sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.”

The failure to adopt an outcome document has been hailed as a defense of national sovereignty along with the original 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action (PoA), which does not establish an international right to abortion.

The session, which focused on “population, technology and research in the context of sustainable development,” collapsed when the chairman, Ambassador Zéphyrin Maniratanga of Burundi, withdrew the draft rather than force a vote or ignore objections.

This prompted Stefano Gennarini of C-Fam to celebrate on Friday how pro-lifers had “chalked up another win” at the UN because the chairman “refused to put a document forward for approval” due to European efforts to load it up with “abortion and gender ideology.”

European and other pro-abortion governments had demanded stronger linkages between “sexual and reproductive health,” “gender equality,” and human rights, but developing nations and the Holy See pushed back.

Gennarini noted that the Holy See “expressed thanks to Ambassador Maniratanga for preserving the ‘practice of consensual adoption’ and lamented how an ‘inordinate focus’ on sexual and reproductive health derailed negotiations.”

He echoed the Holy See’s statement affirming that language on these issues “had ‘always been controversial’ and that it was unfair not to focus on a broader health agenda.”

Writing for the National Right to Life Committee on Monday, Raimundo Rojas strongly concurred with this assessment describing how “radical pro-abortion delegations would not retreat from their obsession with so-called sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights” and instead “hijacked the room” with their agenda.

Rojas credited the breakdown directly to the abortion lobby’s insistence on rewriting agreements rather than respecting sovereign positions. He highlighted the Holy See’s clear intervention as a pivotal moment in upholding consensus traditions at the UN.

Representing the Holy See’s Mission to the United Nations, Msgr. Marco Formica presented the Vatican’s official “explanation of position” on the matter, declaring on Friday:

Notwithstanding the inability to find consensus on the outcome text, it is at least encouraging that the practice of consensual adoption has been maintained. The success and longevity of this Commission is contingent on true respect for the positions of sovereign States, especially with regard to sensitive issues.

The Holy See’s delegation continued expressing deep concern over the session’s narrowed scope, stating:

We have witnessed an increasingly inordinate focus on issues related to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, diverting time away from discussion issues of relevance to this year’s theme … The Holy See would like to express its deep concern regarding language on sexual and reproductive health and, in particular, reproductive rights. This language has always been controversial, including in Cairo in 1994 … Suggesting that reproductive rights are the central tenet of ICPD is a rewriting of the PoA and diminishes the actual principles agreed to by Member States.

The statement further clarified:

Moreover, suggesting reproductive health includes a right to abortion explicitly violates the language of the ICPD, defies moral and legal standards within domestic legislations and divides efforts to address the real needs of mothers and children, especially those yet unborn.

Gennarini observed that the Commission has now “failed to reach agreement in seven of the last 10 sessions,” underscoring the persistent divide over abortion-related language.

And in service to a remedy of this deadlock, Rojas lauded the Holy See’s expressed desire to build common sense consensus with “stronger language promoting the flourishing of women and children and healthcare oriented toward protecting all human life at all stages.”

Looking to the future, the Holy See ended its statement with a note of hope, reaffirming their commitment to work “constructively with all delegations in a spirit of mutual respect and dialogue. We hope that in future sessions, this will result in the adoption of a resolution which every delegation can fully support.”